Harnesses for baby exercisers



June 3, 1969 D. R. sHAw HARNESSES FOR BABY EXERCISERS Sheet Filed Dec. 23. 1966 D. R. SHAW HARNESSES FOR BABY EXERCISERS June 3, 1969 Filed Dec. 23. 1966 2 ore Sheet FIGA United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 297-274 2 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A harness for a baby exerciser having a body belt and a crotch strap, the harness being resiliently suspended from a support so that a young child is comfortably held in a position to touch the ground with his feet and bounce up and down. The body belt is adapted to be threaded through the crotch strap and the ends of the rear of two suspension members is connected to the end of the crotch strap in an arrangement in which the rear end of the crotch strap is movable lengthwise of the belt to centralize the points of connection of the rear two suspension members with respect to two front suspension members with adjustment in the length of the belt. The front end of the crotch strap likewise is adjustable lengthwise of the belt to center it as by connection to the belt by a flexible member such as a lace.

This invention relates to `baby exerecisers of the kind comprising a harness, in the form of a body belt and crotch strap, which is resiliently suspended from a support so that a young child comfortably held in a position to touch the ground with his feet can bounce up and down, which the young nd a pleasant occupation, and take as much exerecise as he wishes which is beneficial to his health.

Such exerecisers in a variety of forms have been known for more than 100 years and in recent years, possibly due to modern designing, have become popular and although the designs available on the market differ in detail they are all not entirely satisfactory.

From the earliest to the most modern design the harness is suspended by four Iflexible members such straps, cords and the like the ends of which members are connected to the body belt and to a spreader or suspension bar, the arrangement being such that there are two such members on each side of a child with his arms between them for free movement.

The body belt must of necessity be of adjustable length to cater for children of different size and to accommodate the device to the growth of a child, and there have been a number of proposals as to the best way to achieve such adjustment usually by overlapipng one end ofthe belt over the other with alternatively engageable fastening means such as snap fasteners. This results that the point of engagement of the belt ends in one position `is equidistant from the points of attachment of the front two flexible members and in all other positions is closer to the one such member than the other, and to cater for this variation and properly to centre the point of connection of the free end of the crotch strap it is known to adjust such end lengthwise of the belt which is most easily obtained by a lace fastening of the end of the crotch strap to the belt after the ends thereof have been connected together.

It has been found that a child of larger size, and one which has grown larger after having happily used the exerciser over a lengthy period, suffers constriction and some discomfort, particularly when the belt is extended to its maximum length, in one shoulder and indeed some chafng has been noted. This has led to the observation that the back end of the crotch strap is fixed to the belt, and in a commercially available form of harness the attachment of the rear two cords is through such rear endof the crotch strap a'nd the belt. It seems that previous designers have placed emphasis on securing the rear end of the crotch strap to the belt without realising that as the belt is increased in length the spacing of the ends of the front two suspension members with respect to the front centre portion of the ybelt or point of connection of the belt ends is also altered so that these two members `are moved further apart, while the spacing and position of the rear two members remain the same, with the result that one front suspension member comes closer to the child, particularly in the region of his shoulder and so causes the constriction and discomfort.

This effect is not altered by centralising the attachment of the front end of the crotch strap to the belt and whilst it s not obvious it is a disadvantage which is even more serious when the suspension members are made of elastic material such as rubber.

Now, therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a construction of harness for a baby exerciser in which the above mentioned disadvantage is entirely eliminated.

Another object of this invention is to simplify and so cheapen the manufacture of the harness while providing a safe, reliable, robust and comfortable harness for use with flexible non-stretch suspension members connectable to a spreader bar which is resiliently suspended and with elastic suspension members connectable to the cross bar of a stud or to spaced apart fixed suspension points.

To these ends in the harness according to the present invention the belt is made separate from the crotch strap which at its rear end is adapted to be threaded through by the belt and which is provided with means such as grommets for the connection thereto of the ends of the rear two suspension members in an arrangement in which the rear end of the crotch strap is movable lengthwise of the belt to centralise the points of connection of the rear two suspension members with respect to the front two suspension members with adjustment in the length of the belt, the front end of the crotch strap likewise being adjustable lengthwise of the belt to centre it as by connection to the belt by means of flexing tie means such as a lace. Lopsidedness such as occurs with the known harness is thus entirely avoided and once the harness has been placed on the child and the back and front ends of the crotch strap properly adjusted there will be little tendency towards any displacement and the child will remain evenly suspended with the four suspension members." in symmetrical relationship without anyone of them being closer to the childs body than the others.

The rear end of the crotch strap may be provided with twofparallel slots for the passage therethrough of the belt but is preferred that the rear end of the crotch strap is folded over to double thickness and stitched to form a belt receiving slot and that spaced apart grommets extendthrough the double thickness portion beyond where the-upper edge of the belt would be for the connection thereto of the ends of the rear two suspension members.

It is alsovpreferred that the belt is made with a central elastic section connected to two non-extensible fabric sections each provided with co-operating parts of lengthadjusting connecting means and with a grommet for the connection thereto of the end of a front suspension member. The length of such elastic section may substantially equal the length of the belt receiving slot in the crotch strap, which is as is normal wider than its front end and conveniently padded.

However, the belt may be made entirely of elastic material or with two elastic sections and although made separately from the crotch strap the two parts when assembled will open out to a T-shape for easy attachment to a child laid thereon on his back by first securing the sion members in normal operative position,

FIG. 2 is a front elevation,

FIG. 3 is a plan View,

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view with the padding of the crotch strap omitted for simplicity of illustration, and

FIGS. 5 and 6 are plan view diagrams to show the effect of lengthening the body belt of a normal harness and the elimination of the disadvantage thereof in the new harness.

As will be seen from FIG. 1 the harness is essentially a normal harness of a baby exerciser comprising a belt 1 and crotch strap 2 with the usual four suspension members 3, 4, 5 and 6 connectable to a spreader bar, to a cross bar of a stand or to other two spaced apart support points.

The belt 1 is, however, made separately from the crotch strap 2. Such belt is made principally of fabric with one or two sections of elastic material and, as illustrated, has one elastic section 1 in the middle thereof which is at the back. Towards their free ends the fabric sections are provided with a plurality of rows of co-operating members of snap fasteners for operatively securing the belt with different effective lengths.

The crotch strap 2 is as normal wider at the back rear end and is as conventional suitably padded. However, the rear end is folded over to double thickness and stitched down to form a slot through which the belt is threaded. The slotted double thickness portion indicated by the numeral 7 is longer than the width of the belt 1 and beyond the upper edge of such belt is provided with grommets 8, 9 to which are connected respectively the ends of the suspension members 4 and 6.

Grommets 10, 11 are provided in the belt for the connection thereto of the ends of the suspension members 3 and 5, in which are also provided grommets 12, 13 for receiving a lace 14 tie for securing the front end of the crotch strap with adjustment lengthwise of the belt after it has been fastened around a child.

When the belt of the harness is increased in length from minimum as illustrated in FIG. 5 in full lines to maximum as indicated by broken lines, the belt end of the front suspension member 5 is moved away from the front mid position without change in the relative position of the front suspension member 3. This suspension member 5 is thus moved in the case of a normal harness unalterably closer to the body of a child symmetrically placed in belt, and in particular closer to the childs shoulder so that he is subjected to constriction by that cord and is inconvenienced not only in restricting movement of one arm but causing numbness and even abrasion particularly when the suspension members are made of elastic material such as rubber. Now as shown in FIG. 6

this elect is entirely eliminated by moving the rear end of the crotch strap lengthwise of the belt in the direction of the arrow as permitted by the new construction illustrated in FIGS. 1-4 until the spacing apart of the suspension members 3, 4 again substantially equals that of the suspension members 5, 6 with the front suspension members 3, 5 actually substantially equally spaced from the front mid-point of the belt and not only apparently so as in the known construction in which the only adjustment was of the front end of the crotch strap.

The new harness also has advantage that the rear end 7 of' the crotch strap by its size gives increased support to the childs back. Also if the crotch strap becomes worn out, damaged or otherwise no-longer serviceable it may be replaced by another so long as the belt is serviceable as it is made separate therefrom, just as the belt can be easily repaired should the elastic panel become defective.

I claim:

1. A harness for a baby exerciser comprising a belt including an elastic section; means for connecting the ends of said belt; a member forming a crotch strap with loop means at one end thereof to receive said belt for lengthwise movement relative thereto and having at the other end thereof flexible tie means for adjustably connecting said other end of said crotch strap to said ends of said belt after they have been connected by said connecting means; and suspension members having one end connected to one end of the crotch strap and movable therewith and the other end connected to the belt.

2. A harness for a baby exerciser which is carried, by four suspension members the ends of which are connected to such harness, wherein the harness comprises a belt formed by a central elastic portion and two non-extensible fabric end portions with means for adjustably connecting the free end of one of said fabric end portions to the free end of the other of said fabric end portions; and a onepiece crotch strap which at one end is folded over to form a belt receiving slot and at the other end has flexible tie connecting means for securing said other end to the connected fabric end portions of said belt in an arrangement in which two of said elongated members are connected to spaced apart points of said folded-over end of said crotch strap and the other two elongated members are connected one to each of said non-extensible portions of said belt whereby adjustment of the positions of the elongated member-s relative to each other is provided.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 806,157 12/ 1905 Martin 297-275 821,116 5/ 1906 Nunamaker 297-275 2,645,271 7/ 1953 Call et al :297-275 2,852,066 9/ 1958 Hawkins 297--275 3,019,053 1/1962 Lambert 297-275 FOREIGN PATENTS 219,782 2/ 1962 Austria.

BOBBY R. GAY, Primm Examiner.

GLENN O. FINCH, Assistant Examiner. 

